


Hawk and Magpie

by phoenixyfriend



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Dancing, F/F, Fae & Fairies, Rare Pairings, Resurrection, This is YA Leah (not JiM or QoH Leah sorry)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 11:26:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10333631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend
Summary: Kate never expected to run into a woman that was not only dead, but never technically existed in the first place, especially not in California. Nonetheless, she did.And then things got complicated.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Join me in rarepair hell for a bit.

Kate was working a job in Los Angeles when it started. She was just doing normal work, tracking an unfaithful spouse, when she caught sight of something familiar out the corner of her eye.

It was gone before she could take a closer look, but lingered in the back of her mind for the rest of the job. It was just a flash of color and a _feeling_ , but it set her on edge, and that unease stayed with her even as she made her way home in the late afternoon, already counting the arrows she’d need to replace from last week’s fight. The job had been successful, and just as depressing as always, but there was a soft wind that made her feel better. Fresher. Clea—

The sound of slow clapping broke her out of her thoughts.

“Nicely done, Hawkeye.”

Kate had spun around, arrow nocked and ready to fire, before she even processed the words.

She _knew that voice._

Leah tilted her head, the bones in her hair almost yellow in the afternoon sun. She was sat atop a high concrete wall, looking down on Kate, ankles crossed. “Well, that’s not a polite way to greet an old friend.”

“Old friend?” Kate almost laughed. Her mind was racing, comparing _this_ Leah to the one she’d only heard rumors of via America. “You tried to _kill_ me last time we saw each other.”

“Hardly. I was just trying to get Loki to talk. Soon as that was done… poof.” Leah raised both hands and spread them like a tiny explosion. “Constructs gone.”

“Thought you were dead from that.”

“Can a creature that was never alive in the first place ever truly die?” Leah asked, slipping forward and off the wall, somehow making the movement look more graceful than it should have as she landed on the ground, utterly unruffled.

“You look pretty alive to me,” Kate said, taking a step to the side and keeping her arrow trained on Leah’s eye. “More alive than you should, really. And what, constructs? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Loki’s guilt created me on a subconscious level. I suppose you could say that I was a guilt- and trauma-induced hallucination given physical form by way of unconscious use of reality-warping magic.” Leah clasped her hands behind her back and smiled. “My duty, in that sense, was to mitigate the guilt part by having Loki reveal _everything_ , at which point I disappeared.”

“Your job was to make yourself obsolete?”

“Just like a parent’s job is to make the next generation, rendering themselves obsolete with time.”

“Not really the same thing.”

“No,” Leah said, taking slow steps forward and smiling. “I don’t suppose it is.”

Kate took a few steps back and to the side, grateful that this area was nearly dead at this time of day. “So, what, you came back? How’s that?”

“…Leah…” she said her own name contemplatively, “That is a name that has forever been associated with a girl, a woman, that was created out of nothing but story. A girl written into existence to stop an evil beyond measure. For so long as someone had a record, a memory, of the story of Leah, she lived on, for it had been recorded by magic, by the shadow of the twilight blade and blood as ink, in the libraries of Asgard. I… I am not that Leah. I am a shade of her existence, with a little too much Loki in my mind and blood, such as it is, for anyone’s comfort.”

She fell silent, coming to a halt in her slow stalking of Kate’s movements, gaze turned down the street past Kate’s shoulder, unseeing.

“And what,” Kate asked, “Does that have to do with how you came back?”

“It carried over…” Leah said at last, focusing on Kate and shrugging. “The bastard creation of the guilt of a reality warper and the memory of a creature of story… it was inevitable, really. For so long as someone remembered me, for so long as any record existed, there was always a chance. When Loki died again, they became the God of Stories. It may have been that final straw.”

“I’m going to just say the answer is magic and Loki, then, because I don’t have the time to parse that down the way someone else might,” Kate said bluntly.

“That might be for the best, yes.”

Kate shifted her stance, coming to a stop and narrowing her eyes. Leah stopped as well, one hand coming up to cover a smile. Not quite an impasse, but…

“And why are you here?” Kate asked after a long moment.

“I had to spawn somewhere, didn’t I?”

“And you came to _California?_ ” Kate had a hard time believing that. “Not Hel or Asgard or New York? Not some magical place with a story in it or whatever?”

“Who said California doesn’t have any magic or stories?” Leah laughed softly. “We’re not in Hollywood, sure, but stories? There’s plenty of those in a big place like this, and magic… well. The world did break recently. There may have been some problems on the magical side of things.”

Kate stayed silent, breathing carefully. Her arms were starting to strain from pulling back on the string for so long, but she couldn’t afford to put it down.

“Hawkeye?”

“Don’t mind me, just trying to figure out what to do about my missing friend’s magical hallucination that tried to kill me once.”

Leah smiled, laughing again. “Oh, you _are_ a funny one.”

Dammit. Kate turned her weapon toward the ground, relaxing the string. “So, no funny business, then?”

“Well, I certainly won’t be _trying_ to cause any trouble now. I don’t have much of a duty to attend to these days, do I? No purpose. I’ve spent the past few days trying to figure out what to do with myself, Kate. I still haven’t found anything.”

“And that’s why you found me?”

“You’re the second-most interesting thing in the city right now,” Leah told her, coming closer. Kate resisted the urge to aim again.

“Just second?”

Leah’s smile faded, and she seemed to be looking through Kate instead of at her. Again. She wasn’t frowning, not quite, but there was something in her expression that was… unnerving.

“I did say there was something odd going on with the magic. California has a handful of ley lines running through it. I was…” Leah shook her head. “I’m investigating for lack of anything better to do.”

“Yeah? Well, I’ve got a private investigation business going, so… you know, try not to budge in on my territory and we’re cool.”

“As sweet as that is, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue. My interests, at least for the moment, are purely in the realm of magic.”

“Yeah?” Kate bit the inside of her cheek, and then put away her bow and the arrow. “Alright, then. But I’m telling a few people you’re here, just in case. And hey, if you need to borrow a couch for the night or something…”

Leah smiled, something softer than she’d worn thus far, and a little more genuinely amused. “I don’t need sleep to the degree that humans do, so you’ll forgive me for not taking you up on that offer. And, Hawkeye…”

Kate took a deep breath as Leah was suddenly just inches away, one hand coming up to push Kate’s chin skywards with a single finger. Their faces were uncomfortably close, Leah dropping her head down to look into Kate’s eyes through the sunglasses.

(Even through the surprise of having her head tilted back like that, Kate noted that Leah’s hand was warmer than expected. Almost human. Almost.)

Kate reached up with her right hand, putting on Leah’s shoulder and _pushing_ , thumb digging into the hollow of the other woman’s throat.

There was no effect, unsurprisingly. Kate was a human, going against whatever Leah was, and Leah was clearly Asgardian-based. A contest of strength was not one that Kate was going to be winning.

Leah’s smile widened until she was outright grinning. It wasn’t as threatening as Kate expected. “Oh, there’s plenty of fire in you. Good.”

“What do you want?” Kate ground out between her teeth.

“Be careful,” Leah said, and there was something insistent in those words. Her hand dropped. “You mattered to Loki, and thus I have a certain vested interest in you. I’d hate to see you get hurt, so… be careful, especially about fancy invitations from nowhere.”

“Fancy invitations?” Kate asked, mulling the thought over.

“Suspicious ones, of course. If you get invited, try not to come. Of course, being Hawkeye… you probably will anyway.” Leah sighed, shaking her head and stepping back. “So at least come armed and not in fancy dress. A bit of body armor would do you good.”

“It usually does,” Kate said, for lack of anything else to say. “You’re still super creepy, but you don’t seem to mean harm, I guess.”

“No, I don’t.” Leah smiled and turned, waving over her shoulder as she walked away. “I’ll be seeing you, Hawkeye. Wear iron.”

“Wait!”

Leah turned, a quizzical expression on her face.

“You got a phone number or something?”

“…not yet. I’ll see about getting one.” She turned back around and continued to walk. On her way up the street, however, Leah dissolved into a cloud of glittery green smoke, leaving no trace after a few seconds.

Kate bit her lip and, after a few seconds, pulled out her phone.

“Hey, America. Are you still in contact with Loki? I have news.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I'll be embedding cosplay pics whenever possible.


End file.
